Italo Calvino on Globalization and Sustainability

Is there a link between literature and ecology? And what role does environmental reflection play in Italian narrative?
In contemporary Italian literature, Italo Calvino represents a precursor in the field of literary ecology. Through his works, he foresaw and described various forms of pollution (air, landscape, information) present in our society, developing caustic reflections on the impact of our civilization on the environment.
This course aims to provide an overview of environmental poetics in Calvino’s work. Our journey will start from the arboreal world of The Baron in the Trees (1957), continue with the analysis of some stories from the collection Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City (1963), then move on to The Watcher and Other Stories (1963), and conclude with some passages from Invisible Cities (1972).